Friday - My Health and My Future With Art

 My grandson's 18th birthday party was at a skating rink. He and his friends had so much fun!

On Wednesday, I had an eye exam to check for glaucoma. Not only do I have it, I have cataracts as well. However, none is bad at this point and I'm taking that as the blessing that it is. I've got eye drops to help with the pressure and swelling that glaucoma sufferers experience. Right now, my eyes are okay. Saying a blessing and am so very grateful.

When I initially thought I might have glaucoma I suspected I'd have to stop creating art. That's not the case much to my relief. I will keep going until I can no longer go. I believe that's not for quite some time yet. However on Wednesday I had a broken heart. I'll be okay for a while and that's the good news. The cataracts aren't bad yet and glaucoma is labeled "suspected". I'll go back in November, just before Thanksgiving, to get checked again. And will continue every few months, I do believe, to keep checking on it.

Meanwhile, there's art being made!

This is a doodle I decided to start last night.

 

I want to use markers for this one. At least in the background. I'd really love to replenish my alcohol ink markers soon. Since September is my birthday month, I might just splurge and get myself a few gifts and replenish a few things that are in need of replacing.

Look what's in the "to be grouted" pile! Yay!!

Yesterday I started making plain painted papers with no designs or stencils/masks on them at all. I'll share photos of the entire collection next week when I've got them all dry and sorted. Sometimes a plain blue piece of painted paper is necessary for my collage art. I don't have many plain ones so I started building up the colors once more which is always fun anyway because it goes quickly. I love to play with paint. It's a wonderful thing.

These are embellished papers from what I refer to as "roll offs". Cleaning the roller can sometimes give me some really cool looking papers to continue creating on. I doodle mostly but have been known, as I've shown previously, to add stencils and different kinds of paint on them as well.

I plan to start on the requested mosaic using the broken pieces of vase now. I'll share as I go.

Have a great weekend! 

 

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

If you'd like to support the artist go to BuyMeACoffee and buy me a cuppa. It's always greatly appreciated. Thank you so much. 👄💝 

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com

 

Wednesday - Art Table Fun

This week, the art isn't as frenzied as last week. I blame the moon. 😆 Or maybe I should thank it. That's probably a better thing to do if I want to experience all of it again at some point.

I subscribe to a YouTube channel called "The Broke Artist Guide" by Alisa Burke. There was one video that peaked my interest about printmaking with plastic bags. What fun! I tried it and was successful, adding this technique to the ever growing library of things to do. Creating painted papers is a continuous evolving learning experience for me. Here's what I did using cotton swabs, a plastic bottle lid and clay scrapping tools I use for painted papers.

 

I saved the painted plastic bags as well (shown in first photo above), letting the paint dry and attached them to sticker paper to use as collage pieces in the future.

I've also been taking some printed pages I had saved for tracing onto substrates to make mosaics and started coloring and cutting them out for journals. These were either too large, too small or I printed more than I needed. I always save everything and now have found a way to use them. I used to put stickers on the back of these kinds of things but now that I'm making art journals, I don't want them made that way. I have glue which works just fine.

Sometimes my doodles surprise me. Not sure how this started, but this is where it ended up. Also not sure if it's a closeup of a bug or an alien. 💁

The gnome couple have true love on their side stating "Love Wins". The little one at the bottom is all ready for Halloween, dressed as a ghost with candy attached all over the sheet entitled: "there is no such thing as too much candy". The background was a test for the watercolor I didn't store properly and wasn't sure it would still be usable. Thank goodness it is!

 

I have an accompanying video for these little doodles on Instagram and Facebook. Look for that if you use them. But just in case, I've added a little info with the photos. Unfortunately I can't share video's here.

 

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

If you'd like to support the artist go to BuyMeACoffee and buy me a cuppa. It's always greatly appreciated. Thank you so much. 👄💝 

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com

 

Wednesday - Well! This was fun!

Happy Wednesday. It's the middle of August already! Next week my grandson starts his senior year in high school. Hard to believe he'll be 18 soon. Be sure to check out Friday's blog post where I share his birthday present. I did NOT do a mosaic for him this time. That even surprised me. Hopefully he'll like it just as much. 🤞

Last week, I came across a YouTube channel by Shawn Petite. I feel like I'm always guided by the muse to find new things to try with painted papers and Ms. Petite did that.

She put quite a few painted papers she had made together to make a large sheet. She used a gel medium, which I think I'll just have to get soon. I didn't think I'd use it and so I never purchased any, but I now see, after trying her technique with a glue stick, the benefits of a gel for keeping the papers altogether would make this technique a little easier but honestly the glue stick worked just fine for my purposes.

This is what I did using painted papers on watercolor paper. It's thicker than copy paper or newsprint, two papers I use a lot when I am playing with the Gelli Plate and it's hard to work with in collage because of it's thickness but captures colors so well, I really like to use it once in a while.

In my enthusiasm to see it completed, I neglected to measure. I measured the pieces and found it was about 18-1/2 x 13 inches before cutting. 

 

 

 

The process from here is to draw, doodle, mark up the sheet in any way you want, with whatever you want. I picked some paint pens, Stabilo Woody's and some sketching crayons that feel like chalk (love those!).

 

At this point you cut the sheet up to a nice size to use either as pieces for future collage art, or even as a background for something. I managed to cut eight pieces.

 

 

Aren't these cool looking? I think a few could be framed just as they are. Some are going to go into art journals I'm sure but now I've just begun to play with this technique I may make a book from these pieces or use them as covers, or cut them up to use on my cards. So many possibilities!!!!! My brain is exploding with ideas.

 

The second one, I used the thinner papers I've painted. I ripped instead of cut out the pieces before gluing and didn't like the way it looked quite as much. But they'll be used I know in journals and collage art I've yet to make and the next one I do won't be ripped. This sheet measured 17-1/2 x 15 inches. These also were cut up into 8 pieces.

 

Adding the doodles is also a fun part for me. Just going wild with whatever I grabbed was a great way to loosen up and just GO!
 

I also think I like the watercolor paper one better so I'll make a few more of those.

 

All-in-all, I love this technique and will add it to my bag of tricks for ways to use painted papers. Thank you, Shawn for your inspiration! 

 

Best part: this was fun! 

 

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

If you'd like to support the artist go to BuyMeACoffee and buy me a cuppa. It's always greatly appreciated. Thank you so much. 👄💝 

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com

Friday - Painted Paper Fun

I watch a lot of crafters doing their thing on YouTube. I mean a whole LOT! They all inspire me to try new things and not be afraid to experiment and learn. I have the best teachers! I'm one lucky gal!!

Here are the names of some of my favorites people on YouTube (in no particular order):

Jackie Bernardi @PaintedPaperStudio, Catherine Rains (the one who taught me all about painted papers in January 2025 and opened up a whole new world) @catrains.artist, and Laurie Richardson Haley @BlackbearyForest.

 

I'm fairly sure they probably won't see this but I want to thank you, ladies, for teaching me such inspirational artful things with painted papers and collage. You are all rock stars in my life! 🌟 😘

In case you hadn't noticed, my focus right now is painted papers. I like to see how others approach the blank page with acrylics i.e.: art journals. Many use that blank page as the "first" layer, slowly adding paint, designs, drawings, stickers, pencils, doodles, etc. onto the paint once it's dry. Sometimes on paper, sometimes in journals. This is an exciting thing to learn because it really is limited only by the imagination.

I've learned the more I practice, the more I want to practice. The more pages I paint, the more I want to paint. And I LOVE the layered look. Putting at least 3 layers of painted papers over each other might seem like a waste but it really isn't. It's all part of a technique I've gotten quite fond of and use often. The photo below is a good example of a finished piece done on 4 inch wood (coaster size). I discovered this technique through Jackie Bernardi.

Embrace the glorious mess that you are.

I've only been making collage fodder since January of this year. It hasn't slowed down, I haven't lost interest and I haven't been distracted by much other than the normal distractions of other art that I do and it's now August. Pretty sure it's something I'm going to continue to do.

Here's some examples of studio life these days: 

Sorting painted papers during the beginning of the year while taking Catherine Rains' online class. How cool are they?!

Gluing pieces down in an art journal. Scraps never go to waste!

And here it is, the photo above, finished. I might add something else at some point.

Cutting out circles and gluing them together for an art journal or collage. I've been making shapes, mostly circles since I started making painted papers.

SO much to do here ... a full day of fun! Dot painting the black things on the top right, gel pen fun in the center right, cutting out shapes at the lower right, the envelopes on the left hold all the shapes I cut out for journals and collage pieces of art.

A page in my collage practice book using purchased printed papers found online. Kinda love the flower theme on this page.

When I have too much paint on the roller, I use a piece of paper, old magazine pages or book pages. At this point, adding designs, doodles and more paint from brushes and my fingers are added slowly (a few days usually) until it becomes an awesome piece of collage fodder. This is what I learned from Laurie Richardson Haley. Pretty cool, huh.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For some reason the photos I've placed here want to stay on the left side of the page. If I read HTML I'm sure I could figure it out ... but I do not ... so my thought was at least you can see them. And that's that!

 

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com

Wednesday - Newest Collage Creations

When I paint or use the Gelli plate, I put a piece of clear shelf liner on the surface to keep paint at bay (more or less). These are pieces of liner that I'm saving for future collages. Some look like landscape elements. Super groovy!

 

It's now time to use them! Here they are glued on wood framed artist boards. This is step one.

 

Step two is adding Asemic writing of sorts on deli and rice paper and final touches all with translucent papers. I haven't yet finished them, although 2 out of 3 of them are hanging in their spots on my wall. I  did a little ink work to enhance the translucent papers like the word: Create. It was not easy to see.

 

I also used one of the taped and painted paper in one of my journals. This might get additional doodles or something to it but for now it is perfect just as it is.

I've hung up two of them. The smallest one shown above will sit on the easel as the photo shows.

What do you think? Pretty cool, huh?! 

 

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com

 

 

Friday - Weekly Wrap Up

I mentioned last Friday that I'd no doubt use my website to share blog posts. In reality, I "talk" too much and need more room to share photos than offered on my site. And so, changing my mind, I'll keep this awesome blog going and add a post to the site on occasion. Once a week would work. We shall see.

Now ... to wrap up the week ...

I played with clay but am not really good with it. I don't use it enough to say I'm comfortable when using clay. I still need to sand and paint them. I wanted to make lettering like I often do to add to my art pieces. I didn't get that far but instead just played around with bubble wrap, a small twig and an Ammonite Fossil on one piece (it looks like a snail on a twig!) and a bee stamp on the other (this one looks like honeycomb). I'm not thrilled with these but I will finish them up in some way and consider attaching them to something; a board or a bottle or ???

 

Earlier in the week while I was organizing some painted papers, getting them into the boxes by color mostly, I noticed how diverse these papers are. Each one could become very precious if I allowed it. If I didn't use them, no one would see them. That's not the purpose of creating anything, let alone painted papers. I want to use them for collage and paper mosaics. That means I have to cut or rip them eventually. But seriously, aren't these cool? Until I know where they'll go and how, they'll stay in the box waiting for their time to shine and help me create something beautiful. Although honestly, each one as they are right now could be framed and look pretty awesome, don't you think?

 

I had a less than great art journal session this week. Not all weeks are good but most are. Still, the option to cover it all completely and start over is always there.

This art journal (one of three ongoing journals) is a board book, so changes to it are limited. I can't rip the page out, I can sand it all down, paint it and start over. Or I can leave it and write some notes somewhere on it as a reminder as to what I didn't like about it.

It started here with layers not really fitting too well around the design. In my defense, I was having a very bad physical day ... in lots of pain due to rain. It was not a great day but I need to be artful every day in some way. And so --- this was born.

 

Using magenta acrylic paint was a good way to tone down the papers I used but the different thicknesses bugged me. Oddly, different thicknesses when doing mosaics is not a big deal. But here, it was a big deal and I didn't like it at all.

I dug around in my boxes filled with painted papers and found some that was translucent (it's actually deli paper) that I had added some paint to and used it to cover the design.

Nope. Bad decision. Liked it even less. Adding the word "peace" to it was my way of surrendering to the page. It is what it is, AS it is.

I can see the magenta under the paper and a few pieces of my painted papers as well, but it just didn't turn out the way I imagined. That's okay, however. I'll try it again, maybe on the next page or in another journal.

The point to these art journals is to learn how to do techniques not yet experienced or less sure of what to do. They are to learn. A lot of times I end up with amazing pages of colorful art but not always. This one falls flat and instead of trying to fix it or paint over it to start over, I plan to leave it.

To sum it all up: it was a week of experimenting. Not all successful, but definitely a good week!

 

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com

 

Wednesday - Website Updates

There's a lot going on this week! From updating my website (a small blog entry is also on there under the "Blog" tab) with a few more mosaics to doing some small art pieces. Even a doodle or two has come through.

 The bowls were added this week. As I said within the listing of this one shown below: "I’m especially proud of creating useful art like this — a perfect example of recycling with purpose. By giving this bowl new life, I’ve helped conserve valuable natural resources and kept something beautiful out of the landfill."

And of course there's some great small art pieces being created. Some 4x4 inch painted pieces using bubble wrap and acrylic markers, collage pieces using scrap pieces of painted papers and some fun in my art journals.

 

Your attitude determines your direction.

Art journal entry using painted papers cut out for the vase and flower, dots punched, and an old business card for the center of the flower.

I recently shared on social media that I picked up a book by collagesoup - and I’m really enjoying it. It’s designed to inspire you to rip, cut, and glue using its pages for your journals or pieces of art --- or both. The pages are rich and beautifully illustrated. Many pages will be used as inspiration hits. This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. They have many books available for collage fun.

One page in particular really spoke to me last night. I started with a sketch which was just okay but not bad since drawing like this is not my "thing", then transferred it onto another page using carbon paper giving me the freedom to add some colors to it and play with the angel's wing. Angel wings fascinate me. I'd like to be able to incorporate them within my doodles in some way. But until then, this is a great way to practice drawing them. I added colored pencils, ink, and one of my favorite quotes to finish it off.

I glued my drawing into my art journal as shown in the last photo below. I’m holding onto the original from the book until it feels ready for its journal spot. ☺️

"You've walked through storms that others never even saw. You kept showing up, kept believing, kept growing. Don't wait for someone else to notice ... thank yourself today. You are a miracle in motion."~Power of Positivity quote

 

 

Enjoy the journey.

Cindy aka EarthMotherMosaics

https://artbyearthmothermosaics.com